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Emilio Barzini, Sr.
Emilio Barzini was the head of the Barzini crime family. Biography In the early 1930s, Barzini became one of the chief lieutenants in Giuseppe Mariposa's organization. After Mariposa's death on orders of Vito Corleone, Barzini took over a part of his organization and presided as head of one of New York's Five Families. He was generally reckoned as the second most powerful Mafia chieftain in both New York and the nation, behind only Vito Corleone. He rose to power shortly after Don Corleone and was a physical presence in the 1940s. He had interests in markets such as narcotics, gambling and prostitution, and was also clever enough to be interested in Las Vegas and Cuba. He was also linked to Wall Street politics and the Mafia in Sicily. Role in the war meeting.]] He was respected enough by Don Corleone to be invited to the wedding of his daughter Connie. However, when his counterpart refused to participate in the heroin trade, Barzini secretly conspired with the other families to make war with the Corleones, forcing them to make peace and open up their territory to drug trafficking. His influence maintained the crippled Tattaglia family following the death of Virgil Sollozzo in 1946, sparking off the Five Families War. To this end, he approached Carlo Rizzi with a plot to draw acting boss Sonny Corleone out to the Jones Beach Causeway tollbooth where he was ambushed and killed. Don Corleone forbade any inquiries into Sonny's death, instead asking Barzini to help him set up a peace summit. It was at this meeting that Don Corleone discovered that Phillip Tattaglia, as apparent instigator of the war against the Corleone family, was not calling the shots. Barzini was the puppet master inconspicuously orchestrating the anti-Corleone alliance. Tattaglia betrayed his true and diminished role by desperately seeking Don Corleone's promise of peace, and turning to Barzini for his approval and guarantee of protection. Downfall Not satisfied with the submission of the Corleones, Barzini began chipping away at their territories in New York. At Don Corleone's funeral, Barzini approached Corleone caporegime Salvatore Tessio to organize another peace summit where Vito's heir Michael would be ambushed. However, Barzini didn't know that he had walked into a neatly arranged trap. Soon after Michael returned from hiding in Sicily, he and Don Corleone began making plans to wipe out Barzini and the other New York Dons. It turned out that Michael deliberately allowed Barzini to muscle in on the Corleone interests to lull him into inaction. A few weeks after Don Corleone's death, Barzini was assassinated along with the other conspirators. After bribing a judge at the courthouse on Manhattan's Foley Square, Barzini came out to find Corleone enforcer Al Neri, disguised as a police officer, killing his bodyguards and driver. Before Barzini could react, Neri shot him twice in the back, killing him instantly. He was succeeded by caporegime Paul Fortunato. Personality and traits Emilio Barzini was a man much like Don Corleone, but more modern, more sophisticated, more businesslike. He could never be called an old Moustache Pete and he had the confidence of the newer, younger, brasher leaders on their way up. He was a man of great personal force in a cold way, with none of Don Corleone's warmth. In the video game .]] In the video game, Emilio Barzini oversees the murder of Johnny Trapani by two of his capos for interference in his business. The resulting scandal causes Barzini to withdraw his interests in Little Italy and he gaines something of a grudge against the Corleones. Barzini also replicates Woltz' mansion by building the Barzini Compound in Midtown, from which he rules with an iron fist. During the war, Barzini is initially confident of success, but begins to lose his grip following Sonny Corleone and Aldo Trapani's raid on the West Port Warehouse, which draws dangerously close to revealing the Barzinis role as the manipulators behind the violence. He was referred to by the Tattaglia Underboss as "The Wolf". Death in the video game In the video game, Barzini is shot down by Johnny Trapani's son, Aldo Trapani, who had finally avenged his father. Real life sources Emilio Barzini is believed to be modeled on Vito Genovese and Lucky Luciano. As Luciano, Barzini was admired by the younger generation of mafiosi and was looking to overthrow the more traditional "Mustache Petes". Genovese was known for his cunning and ruthlessness and wanted to become "Boss of Bosses" by eliminating rival gangsters. He was also a strong supporter of the narcotics trade. Barzini,Emilio Category:Deceased Category:Barzinis